Battle

I awake to the sound of a pounding on the wooden door of the room. The door bursts open as a man comes in frighteningly speaking, though I can't understand what he is saying I get the gist. It seems the Wave has started.

"Big Ape, it is time to fight." I speak solemnly to the ape, he nods as he readies his large body. The monkeys climb on him with a vigor I hadn't seen for days. The man rushes up through the wooden make shift home and takes us to the top of the walls of the keep. Hundreds of mages stand on the top of the walls all staring dreadful at the forest far in the distance. Double seems to be waiting for me up here as he quickly starts speaking " We think the wave you were talking about is coming, very soon" almost out of breath he continues "The Wretches are different, most of our scouts have not returned meaning that most of them died, those who survived all tell of white beasts of unimaginable speed."

A vibration fills the ground, though the men around me don't feel the acute vibrations I do. Something Big is coming and fast. I look into the edge of the forest as I prepare my mana for use. This will probably be the hardest fight I have come across in this world. A fight that is going to make up the future for me and these people.

A shadow looms from the forest, many follow. Tall bone white beings as tall as the trees slowly make there way through the forest. Many standard wretches follow but the tall look strangely still as they encircle the keep at a distance. Only about one hundred of the variant Wretches exist while there is thousands of the standard wretches. Though I have a feeling the standard type will be no problem to the humans these variants give me chill that goes through my spine.

The Wretches are silent unmoving as they watch us with devoid faces. I'm startled by the system giving me a notification out of the blue.

<Requirements have been fulfilled War Mission being initiated.>

<*First Wave: Wretches Awakening*>

Battle mission criteria:

Kill Rewards:

10 EXP per Minion Wretch

500 EXP per Commander Wretch

1000 EXP per General Wretch

10000 EXP for the Wretch Prince

Casualties penalties:

-10 EXP per Guard Killed

-25 EXP per Archer Killed

-50 EXP per Mage Killed

-100 EXP per general Killed

-500 EXP if Keep Master is killed

-1000 EXP per friend killed

Bonus Objectives:(Rewards will be given after completion, Rewards are hidden until accomplishment)

Burned Bodies: 0/100

Total Wretches Killed: 0/100

Total Lives Directly Saved: 0/50

Find the Cause of the Wretches Surge

Find out what will cause Wave Two

Dang it looks like this is gonna be a hard battle. I scan the list silently then my eyes land on the last Bonus Objective, WAVE TWO? There is gonna be two of these blasted things. It must be very important if the system specifically gave me a new bonus quest based on this battle. A feeling of fear sits in my stomach as my eyes land on one figure slowly walking through the forest. A Wretch that looks almost familiar walks out in clothes. The first Clothed Wretch I had ever seen, a tattered cloak covers his body a symbol glowing on the clasp connecting the cloak. The wretch lowers his cloak as he scans the Keep, his eyes locking on me at last.

" A feast it will be heheheHEHEHEHHAHHAHAHAHA " A familiar voice starts shrieking through the silent atmosphere. The Wretch was the first I had seen. Fully recovered with a few brutal scars on his body but other than that looking exactly the same as the previous time I had seen him. After his delusional laughing ends the Wretches start moving Forward as the Humans start screaming orders through the keep as arrows rain down on the many Wretches. The mages light the bodies of the fallen Wretches up as they are burned entirely.

The Wretches still don't increase there pace. It seems they don't care about those that they had lost. After a split second decision I try something risky. That clasp on the cloak seems to be important whatever it is, so lets try Shells Item Appraisal function, though the range is quite far it would be a blessing if it worked. "Shell could you try to Appraise that glowing Clasp on the cloak of that Wretch?" I mentally gesture towards the intended Wretch.

{The Appraisal is a little fuzzy and not as accurate as it is normally but I'll give you the details I could get}

{Cloak of the Wretched King}:

Rarity: ???

Cost: ???

Uses: Some sort of control magic. Since the distance is so far it is hard to find any other uses or specifications.

Though it is very vague I have a general understanding of whats going on. It seems this guy is the Wretch Prince or at least that would make since why he would have an item from the so called Wretches King. Though the Item use is not to expressive I have a feeling what the control magic could be used for. I eye the wretches and see that none of them are acting with any self intentions and all seem to be doing the exact same thing. The Cloak must be why they are acting this way.

Though this is good for us in the short term it could be detrimental later on. If they all act in coordination in the likes that I haven't seen before than there is a pretty good chance that we wouldn't be able to live past tonight if that Cloak is not out of possession of the Undying Wretch.

I cast my body enhancement as tiny looks at me and prepares his wind armor. I jump off the edge of the wall and rush to the prince of the wretches. Big Ape Rushes to one of the Variant Wretches. As I rush the Wretches respond, almost waiting for someone to make a move, the Undying Wretch Smirks at the sight of me rushing towards him. The two closes variants rush at me at an incredible speed though much slower than me. These Wretches will only end up being nuisances to me if I have to fight this guy. I rush towards them at lightning speed and rip one of there throats out easily as I let the energy on my body destroy the corpse easily, I rush to the other one and he seems almost prepared and unfazed by the death of his companion.

He Dodges to the side as I rush towards him throwing me into confusion at the burst of speed as he reaches out and tries to crush my body. He narrowly misses me as I coil through the air and kill this variant as well. These guys aren't as useless as there former types, I make a mental note to watch for there speed in the future. After readying my body I surge to the prince at lightning speed. He simply smirks as he taps his cloak clasp silently and starts to almost blur. His Bone white body started to turn into a shade of black as he slowly fades from view. Either this is teleportation or invisibility but either way I can't let this guy finish. I activate burst dash and surge forward as I rush to try and hit him as quickly as possible. I reach him last second as my teeth bite and stick to the cloak on his body.

I find myself almost ethereal as I'm attached to this Wretch who is semi transparent looking at me in amusement. "You are quite fast aren't you little snake?" He says as he looks at my form condescendingly. "You know we aren't enemies right little snake?" his voice echos almost as if he is a ghost in this strange ethereal landscape. "Even if we were enemies you couldn't kill me, Not even your gigantic tortoise friend could leave a scratch on me." he pauses and speaks hauntingly "Oh, thanks by the way for killing your friends brother that giant crocodile, he was quite the idiot, blocking the wretches from gaining access to the mana pool, seriously who does he think he was.". His mocking voice continues " I mean we kinda owe you quite a lot, you being the reason we can even leave the forest, without you killing that monster we would still be being killed over and over again by them."

The horror sets in as his words ring true through my head. He tries to speak once more but this time something in me breaks. I am a snake. I am a human. I don't know what I am, I could be a snake, I could be a human, but I am sure I'm not one of them, these are nightmares made real. I bite bite at the clasp as quickly as possible. The Wretch seems surprised at this intense burst of speed. I find my teeth crushing the clasp out of shape as the ethereal surroundings become solid and the clasp starts to leak a massive amount of mana. "YOU IDIOT, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DO-" The clasp Explodes burning my scales as I am sent throttling backwards at a very high speed.

I fly back wards killing about 5 Wretches as I do this. I keep going further and land into the wall of the keep making the wall struggle to survive such a blast, but the wall remains as I pass out on the ground near the floor. A notification sounds through my mind from the system and that is the last thought I have before blackness takes my view.

<Congratulations on finishing all current missions. You are really a pro at doing Quests, rewards are being delivered in the next 24 hours>